This invention relates to apparatus for supplying electric power from a vehicle body of a vehicle to a slide door, by utilizing a mutual induction operation of a primary coil and a secondary coil, and the invention also relates to a method of supplying electric power to the vehicle slide door.
In recent years, automobiles, having a slide door slidably mounted on a vehicle body, have had a high-function design. With this high-function design, for example, a power window has been mounted on the slide door, and it has become necessary to supply electric power to the slide door so as to drive the power window. Therefore, in recent years, there have been proposed various vehicle slide door power supply apparatuses for supplying electric power from a vehicle body of a vehicle to a slide door. One example of such vehicle slide door power supply apparatuses will be described briefly.
In FIG. 7, a body-side feed contact 4 is mounted on a vehicle body 1. When a slide door 2 is closed, the feed contact 4 is brought in to contact to a door-side feed contact 3, mounted on the slide door 2, for an electrical connection. The body-side feed contact 4 is connected to a battery 5 mounted on the vehicle body 1. A door-inside controller 6 is mounted in the slide door 2. The door-inside controller 6 includes a door battery 7 which is chargeable, and the door-side feed contact 3 is connected to this door battery 7. When the slide door 2 is opened so that the door-side feed contact 3 is out of contact with the body-side feed contact 4, the door battery 7 supplies electric power to a pressure sensor 8 and a pressure-sensitive switch 9 which are mounted on the slide door 2.
FIG. 8A is a schematic view of the body-side feed contact 4. FIG. 8B is a schematic view of the door-side feed contact 3. In FIG. 8A, reference number 10 denotes female terminals (female connector). In FIG. 8B, reference numeral 11 denotes male terminals (male connector) which are brought into contact with the female terminals 10 for the electrically connection thereto when the slide door 2 (see FIG. 7) is closed.
In the above art, electric power is supplied from the vehicle body 1 to the slide door 2 by the electrical connection between the door-side feed contact 3 and the body-side feed contact 4. However, for some reason, when water is applied to the connecting portions of the body-side feed contact 4 and the door-side feed contact 3, or an electrically-conductive material (e.g. a thin metal sheet) is held between the body-side feed contact 4 and the door-side feed contact 3, there is encountered a problem that the short-circuiting occurred (There is a fear for the production of fire or an electric shock accident, thus affecting the safety).
This invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a vehicle slide door power supply apparatus and a method of supplying electric power to the vehicle slide door, in which the safety can be enhanced.
In order to solve the aforesaid object, the invention is characterized by having the following arrangement. A power supply apparatus for supplying electric power from a vehicle body to a slide door slidable mounted on the vehicle body of a vehicle, the power supply apparatus includes:
a primary coil provided to the vehicle body;
a secondary coil provided to the slide door, wherein the primary and secondary coils can be brought into proximity to each other upon closing of the slide door to effect a mutual induction operation so as to supply the electric power;
a temperature sensor provided in a vicinity of the primary coil;
a primary coil control device which is connected to the temperature sensor, and stops excitation of the primary coil in accordance with the temperature of the primary coil or the vicinity of the primary coil detected by the temperature sensor, so as to interrupt a supply of the electric power to the slide door;
a slide door-contained battery for supplying electric power to a load drive driving and controlling at least one load on the slide door at least when the slide door is opened or when the supply of the electric power to the slide door is interrupted; and
charging means for charging the slide door-contained battery with the electric power supplied to the slide door through the secondary coil.
The power supply apparatus further comprising an alarm unit for warning of abnormality of the power supply judged by the primary coil control device in accordance with the temperature detected by the temperature sensor.
A method of supplying electric power from a vehicle body to a slide door slidably mounted on the vehicle body of a vehicle, in which the electric power is supplied to the slide door by a mutual induction operation of a primary coil provided to the vehicle body and a secondary coil provided to the slide door when the slide door is closed, the method comprising the steps of:
comparing temperature of the primary coil or temperature of a vicinity of the primary coil detected by a temperature sensor with a threshold value, and
stopping excitation of the primary coil when the detected temperature exceeds the threshold value, so that the supply of the electric power to the slide door is interrupted.
The method further comprising the step of warning abnormality of a power supply through an alarm unit when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor exceeds the threshold value.